Debauchery with Gisela

Last weekend was a long weekend (Friday was a holiday). It was a good thing that it was a short week too because it was a brutal one. Which was why I was more than happy to accept Gisela's invitation to meet after I finished work on Thursday night to watch a mindless movie in Gangnam. It was just what I needed to switch off my brain and hold my rage at bay. As it turned out I was a little late meeting her because of work related tasks. Argh! And then I went the wrong direction on the subway (I realized just as the train doors closed) so that wasted some more time. I made it though and I'm so glad I did because we had so much fun!

We watched What Happens in Vegas and I have to admit I had bottom of the barrel expectations for this movie. In fact, in different circumstances I probably would never have watched this movie. I have to say, it is completely predictable but I laughed my ass off anyway. Maybe I was in the perfect frame of mind (aka my brain was mush from a terrible, stressful week) or maybe watching it with a Korean audience did it (I thought the guy next to me was actually going to pee his pants. Try to keep a straight face when you're sitting next to Kim Jong Giggles, I dare you!). Plus Rob Corddry is in it and I love him from the days of yore when the Daily Show began.

The movie ended and it was after midnight, which meant that the subway was closed. Gisela had a bus she could take basically any time of the night so it was no problem for her. I probably could have found a bus or just taken a cab (Gangnam isn't too far from where I live which is why we met there) but at 12:30 am it was gridlock, bumper to bumper traffic!!! What the heck?!? I thought of Matt sitting at home (he works until 10pm so it would have been too late to wait for him to get off work to include him in our plans and Eddie was in the USA) and then I looked at the traffic again and suggested we get a drink and wait it out a bit.

That sparked us searching for an appropriate bar/pub that carries mixed drinks and not just skunky beer and greasy chicken. The night was filled with places containing inappropriate holiday themed venues. First we went into this place because of the Halloween theme. Really I just wanted to take some pictures of it and didn't really have high hopes for the menu. I was right and it was filled with skunky beer and overpriced side dishes. So we took some pictures and casually slipped out of the bar before ordering.

Not only did that place have the best witches and paper jack-o-lanterns all over the place, it also had two random nutcrackers. It makes sense I suppose since nutcrackers are pretty creepy. Eddie will probably be jealous since Gisela got pretty cosy with one of the nutcrackers. I think she gave him her number, actually.

So we continued our quest and ended up in this place we thought might be closing soon since it had a bar and a restaurant. When we walked in everyone looked at us with great interest which was a little unusual since Gangnam is pretty full of foreigners. They asked us nervously if we wanted to sit in the bar and we assumed they were asking if we wanted to order a meal, which we didn't, so we said we did want to sit in the bar area. Well, they literally meant, "Do you want to sit at the bar?" cuz that's where we ended up sitting. This place had a really high number of staff and the only patrons were Korean. Everyone was really friendly towards us and they had cocktails!! They were super pricey but we weren't planning on staying long so whatever. We each got a cocktail and picked a sidedish (nachoes). The waitress was really interesting in talking to us and was really excited at my incredibly pathetic and limited Korean. Some of the random words I have been picking up lately (like the Korean word for vacation) actually came in handy.

Next thing we know she is asking us if we like something. Gisela is pretty mystified and thinks she wants to know if we like mint but I was pretty certain she was asking if we like meat. I was right and we ended up with service beef jerky. Ahssa! Then the waitress brought over another staff member, this adorable 22 year old guy named Ji Hoon. It's probably no mistake that he shares the same Korean name as heartthrob and Colbert rival, Rain. Anyway, what Ji Hoon lacked in English skills he certainly made up for with enthusiasm. This guy was hilarious and adorable. Turns out he lives near Dana and Curtis and upon discovering this there were a lot of jubilant high fives and fist pounds. You can see the service beef jerky in this picture and also the random mini Christmas tree that they had at the bar. Inappropriate holiday decorations strike again!!

One thing lead to another and before we knew it, it was 4 am! Matt had already called to make sure I wasn't dead (at about 2 am). What can I say? We hadn't hung out in a long time and had plenty to talk about. Plus we got a service gold medallion drink (which Gisela convinced our poor little Ji Hoon to add rum too) which I couldn't drink more than a sip of since it contained bananas. The bar was open until 5 am and that's the same time as the subway is supposed to start so I figured we had gone past the point of no return. We powered through (Ji Hoon took a break and was napping when we left- the other employees woke him up to say good bye to us) and as it turns out the subway doesn't start until 5:30am so I was stuck waiting for about 30 minutes. Oh well. What a crazy night! Usually I am pretty lame but now I can say that I stayed out all night until the subway started again.
Cutie pie Ji Hoon didn't want us to take his picture but we managed to get one anyway. He kept shouting "No zoom!!". Hahah. It was a great way to start our relaxing long weekend.